This invention relates generally to child restraint systems, and more particularly, to a child seat including a crush zone for absorbing impact energy.
A child restraint system, commonly referred to as a child car seat, child safety seat or simply child seat, is used for transporting and safely restraining a child within a vehicle so as to minimize the risk of injury to the child in the event of an abrupt movement or a collision involving the vehicle. Safety is of utmost concern in the design of a child seat. Conventionally, child seats have been made for infants and young children weighing less than about 45 pounds. However, as the safety advantages of the child seats and the associated safety harnesses become better known, there is an increased need in a child seat for older children of up to 80 or 100 pounds in weight.
The structural requirements of the child seat typically vary insubstantially from child to child within a relatively small weight range. As a result, conventional child seats are configured to contain children having similar sizes. In contrast, the structural requirements for containing children weighing about 80 pounds is significantly different from those weighing about 25 pounds. Therefore more than one child seat would have to be purchased for a child as they grow from about 25 pounds to about 80 pounds.
Accordingly, it is recognized that a specific need exists for a child seat that is configurable to address the aforementioned concerns. More particularly, there is a specific need for a child seat that is easily configurable to contain a child as that child grows from about 25 pounds to about 80 pounds. There is a specific need for a child seat that can be configured to protect a small child from the impact of a crash and easily reconfigured to protect a much larger child from the impact of a crash.